I had an ah-ha moment today. This doesn’t happen as often as I would like () so I thought I would write about it. I was chatting with a friend who recently lost her job. She was going on and on about the many challenges facing her as she seeks out her next opportunity. Her frustration was evident as she said, okay somewhat screamed, “I just want to find a job that pays me money, that I don’t have to drive five hours to get to!!” It was then that I realized…I spend a lot of time on here talking about how to prepare yourself for the job search, but what about the search itself.

Where do you look for local job openings? I searched my whole site, and although I dabbled on great sites to check, I still hadn’t posted on “How to find a local job?”

And for this my friends I apologize. 

So here we go. You are looking for a company that doesn’t involve an insane commute, and has positions OPEN (which is another frustration in itself). I have put together the first couple sites you should look at when searching out a new job locally, one you can not only get a paycheck for, but one that leaves you with a sense of sanity.

Flipdog.com. This was the brainchild of Monster.com, and although it may look like a regular job search engine…its all local baby! You put in your position and the zip code and it focuses your results on the actual city you searched—novel idea these days. Instead of a job in the same county (which can be up to two hours away!) it leaves you with the postings closest to your front door. Not only that but they list similar categories by geography as well, so you can dabble in related job postings that you may be able to apply for. Good stuff.

Career-Finder.org. Okay this suggestion comes with a disclaimer. Although it is a great site for targeting local jobs, they do require you sign up for information on local educational and training opportunities. I know, I know…lame. However, it really is a great engine focused on local employment, so if you are serious about your job search and landing a paycheck, its probably worth a few spam emails. Right? Yeahhh probably.

Unemployment Office. Yup. Go there. It really is a wealth of knowledge. How do I know this? Because I was on unemployment once. (Enter gasp here!) Once you get there just ask the representative behind the front desk for the resource section. Head that direction and almost always there is a folder of updated job listings in your area. All are local opportunities, and are usually within a day to two days old (mainly because people flock to them like bees to honey). These jobs tend to be more intermediate in nature, but are usually companies looking to hire ASAP. So step away from your computer and check it out.

CareerOneStop. After that last paragraph I realized you might not know where your nearest unemployment office is. Enter CareerOneStop, it’s a full on job resource site backed by your state. You simply enter the zip code you live in and it spits back the nearest job search resources. This includes unemployment offices, career counselors, schools with training programs, and more. Also be sure to check out the site in general, it’s full of information to help you land the job after you have found it.

Craigslist.com. People forget about this guy once and a while, but remember you can search open job postings, by town and by date posted. This leaves you with the most accurate list of local open positions. Also normally when a position is filled, the posting is taken down, so you wont waste your time applying to a job that has already been filled.

When it comes to finding a job close to home as soon as you can, it’s best to use both the big search engines and supplement them with more creative strategies. You really need to canvas your local area for open positions, both online and offline, before posting your resume to the Internet and crossing your fingers for a call back. There is more you can be doing, and we are here to help you with it. Feel free to leave other ways you or someone you know has found local employment, we would love for you to share below!